The BIOS
While the A8R-MVP is largely a no-frills package, the board's BIOS is surprisingly well equipped for tweaking and overclocking.

Users have access to a wide range of memory timing options, including the all-important 1T command rate. The board is also capable of running an asynchronous memory bus at 216, 233, and 250MHz for those with memory capable of those speeds. Those faster memory bus speeds only work with more recent E-stepping Athlon 64 processors, though.

On the overclocking front, the A8R-MVP treats users to HyperTransport clock speed options up to 400MHz, with a range of CPU and processor link multipliers to allow for further fine tuning. Lower memory bus dividers are also provided, as are a range of CPU, memory, and PCI Express voltages. CPU voltages only go up to 1.55V, but users can crank their memory up to 3.2V with the board.

In addition to manual overclocking options, the A8R-MVP's BIOS is also equipped with a couple of automatic overclocking features. The first of these is AI Overclocking, which cranks the CPU to between 3% and 30% above stock, depending on the setting. This type of dumbed-down overclocking option is becoming more and more popular among mobo manufacturers, and while it doesn't offer as much control as manual bus tweaking, it should be less intimidating for newbies. This kind of feature should also be disabled by default, which unfortunately isn't the case with the A8R-MVP. Fortunately, the A8R-MVP's PEG Link graphics card overclocking feature is disabled by default. PEG Link mode can turn up the core and memory clocks of certain graphics cards from the BIOS, but again, seasoned overclockers will likely want to tweak those clocks manually.

Asus has been a little behind the curve when it comes to BIOS-level fan speed control, but the A8R-MVP actually does a pretty good job in this department. The BIOS offers temperature-based fan speed control for the board's system and CPU fan headers, complete with variable temperature triggers for various fan speeds. It's not quite as slick as the fan speed control offered by some high-end boards, but for a sub-$100 product, it's pretty good.

If poking around in the BIOS isn't your style, you can also adjust temperature triggers using Asus's PC Probe II hardware monitoring software. The app allows users to easily monitor temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds from within Windows, and alarm triggers can be set for each monitored variable. However, PC Probe's tweaking options are quite limited; you won't find any control over memory timings or clock speeds.